Power of Weapons

I've compared the effectiveness of various armor, but I used the term 'value'. Value is a little misleading, since I did not consider the cost, nor if an item is Bind on Equip (BoE). Since I am now comparing weapon, I'll use the term 'power' to compare them. And no, this is not the same as work done or energy converted in physics .. just a random noun I choose to use, but you'll get the meaning. :)

Weapons typically increase attack, and that attack value is applicable to both military and contest. Non-black armor also increases attribute. Each attribute increase is worth 3 points in attack (if that attribute is STR). But otherwise, the value of it is similar. So for a given item, the power is [attack] + [sum of attributes] * 3. 2 of the items below however have additional stats that increase only contest attributes. For those, I'll list first the military power and then the contest power.

Hope the chart helps you decide when you should equip a higher level item, even though the color is of a lower grade.

Item : Color	Power	Level	Bind on Equip?
Practice : Black	16	1	N
Practice : Green	21	1	N
Practice : Blue	32	1	N
Wood : Black	40	10	N
Practice : Purple	52	1	N
Wood : Green	54	10	N
Iron : Black	64	20	N
Wood : Blue	80	10	N
Iron : Green	87	20	N
Steel : Black	88	30	N
Wood : Purple	106	10	N
Great : Black	112	35	N
Steel : Green	120	30	N
Iron : Blue	125	20	N
Mercenary : Black	136	40	N
Black Iron	141 / 202	30	N
Great : Green	153	35	N
Guard : Black	160	45	N
Steel : Blue	173	30	Y
Royal : Black	184	50	N
Mercenary : Green	186	40	Y
Wisdom	186 / 221	40	N
Guard : Green	219	45	Y
Great : Blue	221	35	Y
Cupid	226	1	N
Royal : Green	252	50	Y
Mercenary : Blue	269	40	Y
Shackle : Green	285	55	Y
Guard : Blue	317	45	Y
Mercenary : Purple	361	40	Y
Royal : Blue	365	50	Y
Guard : Purple	412	45	Y
Knight : Purple	481	50	Y
Cult Pike : Purple	589	60	Y
Glowing	595	45	N
Trident : Purple	655	65	Y
Lionheart : Purple	709	70	Y

Faster troop production

As you may have noticed, it is actually cheaper to recruit a level 1 soldier, and then train him to level 8 (or your desired level). It takes less resource. It may seem like it takes more time, but since you recruit AND train at the same time, the total production once you have a pipeline going is actually faster.

Level	Recruiting	Training to level 8
1	8:38	14:56
2	9:38	13:21
3	10:38	11:46
4	11:50	9:50
5	13:22	7:24
6	14:48	5:07
7	16:35	2:17
8	18:01

Take a look at the chart above (your mileage may vary), that is for one of my cities for mounted crossbowman (Cav4). It takes 8:38 to recruit a level 1, and then 14:56 to train a level 1 to level 8. But it takes 18:01 to recruit a level 8.

You may think it is faster to recruit level 8 straight up. But if you consider that you can recruit level 1 while you are training another level 1 to level 8, then the output is a level 8 every 14:56 instead of every 18:01. That is 20% more soldiers per troop in the same given period.

But wait, that is NOT the optimal. The production rate is actually the larger of the 2 numbers in a row. So the optimal in the case above will be to recruit a level 3, and then train him to level 8. In that case, a soldier is produced every 11:46. That is 53% more production than straight up recruiting.

So, I have show you how to do it, you will of course have to plug in your own numbers, as everyone's scenario is different. In fact, it could be different in every city.

Now, there's yet another twist. For those whose military rank is General or higher, you actually get 2 cavalry lines. So you actually need to half the recruiting the time when doing your optimization. For me, that means I should be looking at this table instead :

Level	Recruiting	Training to level 8
1	4:19	14:56
2	4:49	13:21
3	5:19	11:46
4	5:55	9:50
5	6:41	7:24
6	7:24	5:07
7	8:17	2:17
8	9:00

That means, my optimal production is recruiting of level 5 and then training them to level 8. This yields 21% more production than straight up recruiting (not as big a gain for those with only 1 queue). This also applies to players with lower military ranks, but using soldier queue specials.

For those with 2 queues and using soldier queue to get a 3rd, you will have to divide by three. And the gain will be even lower. For me, if I use soldier queue to get a 3rd queue, the optimal will be to recruit level 6, and the gain is 17%.

To get the faster production, it is some work. You will have troops sitting in the pipeline that are of lower level and consuming food. But considering that you will be using less food for the production, and you only need to keep 200 troops in the pipeline (for 2 queues, and daily maintenance), it should be more efficient, even from the resource view.

So here's how you do it :
Build level 5 for first day.
On second day, continue building level 5, but start TWO upgrade queues for all level 5 soldiers.
On 3rd day, one of the upgrade queue should have completed, and you start a upgrade queue, while also continuing to build level 5.
Repeat 3rd day procedure, and you're in the zone for pipeline production.

Level 9 Troops

The recent event (and it is not yet over, you can still buy the Persian boxes, but the devils do not drop them now) allow players to acquire Level 9 books for :

• Infantry 5 : Berserker / Sword Dancer / Duelist
• Infantry 6 : Slurbow / Longbowman / Sniper
• Cavalry 4 : Mounted Crossbowman / Horse Archer / Destroyer

But that leads to the question : How much better are Level 9 troops?

	Level 7 over Level 6	Level 8 over Level 7	Level 9 over Level 8
Sword Dancer	19.57%	16.70%	15.75%
Longbowman	19.29%	17.93%	16.78%
Horse Archer	18.40%	19.77%	16.11%
Duelist	20.30%	18.95%	15.31%
Sniper	17.97%	16.85%	15.74%
Destroyer	15.65%	16.87%	14.43%
Orcish Berserker	17.63%	16.59%	15.62%
Orcish Slurbow	19.10%	17.79%	16.68%
Mounted Crossbowman	17.87%	19.07%	16.28%

The laws of diminishing returns appear to apply. The shocker is that level 8 over level 7 for Cav 4 is actually more significant than level 7 over level 6.

16%-19% average is a lot. However, hero skills increases the troop by a fixed amount, independent of the troop level. Some scrolls also improve the troop by fixed amount (especially ATK and DEF). So, depending on your hero's skill and equipped scrolls, your mileage may vary.

Military Book Names

This is the 3rd event where we are getting military books.
The book names are not always obvious for the troop names.
eg. Parrying => Orc Infantry 2 (Warrior).
Some of the book names aren't even spelled correctly.
But below is the table (misspelling included), so that you won't mess up your claim.

	Orc	Human	Dwarf
Infantry 1	Axe specialty	Swordsmanship	Hammer skills
Infantry 2	Parrying	Shield	Heavy armor
Infantry 3	Crossbow lover	Shooting course	Gunner course
Infantry 4	Broadsword skill	Pike training	Spear training
Infantry 5	Berserk power	Sword dance	Heave hammer
Infantry 6	Heavy crossbow	Longbow training	Rapid shot
Cavalry 1	Tame wolf	Riding course	Robot pilot
Cavalry 2	Dire wolf	Charge training	Robot fight
Cavalry 3	Sword and wolf	Horse spearplay	Improved robot
Cavalry 4	Wolf and arrowes	Horse archery	Robot shooting

Armor for Military and Contest

The recent event (and is still on-going as I write this) gives a complete Green Knight set for a quest, and then a complete Blue Knight set for another.
But how do those sets compare to what you get in Arena?

Regular set (Black)
These adds to armor, and when the set is completed, you get a set bonus of STR, DEF and HP.

Regular set (Green)
These adds to ONE attribute (STR/DEF/AGI/DEX), the armor value is higher than black sets.

Regular set (Blue)
These adds to TWO attributes, the amount added is more than that in green, and the armor value is yet higher.

Regular set (Purple)
These adds to TWO attributes, the amount added is more than blue, and the armor value is higher than blue.

Arena (Blue)
These add to ONE attribute, the amount added is in the same range as the regular blue set. The armor value is the same as the regular blue set. It also adds to 2 separate Arena stats, but it does not give a set bonus.

The preference is in this order for items of the same level :
1. Regular (Purple)
2. Regular (Blue)
3. Arena (Blue)
4. Regular (Green)
5. Regular (Black)

But how do we compare gears of different level?
If a hero is equipped with a Blue Fury set, does he give it up for the Tiger arena set at level 50?

The way to compare it is to equip the set, and look at the hero's stats.
If the hero is equipped with only non-arena items, the War and Contest stats should be identical.
Each point in STR/AGI/DEX will add to 3 points in stats, while a point in DEF will add to 4 points in stats. For Blue arena items, if the attribute added is 'X', the arena stats added will be 3 times X if the stats are DMG/EVD/Crit, but 4 times X if the stat is AMR. But these only affects contest stats, not military. That is why when you equip arena items, your military stats will be lower than contest stats. And as such, each item has a different value, for military and contest. For sets that has a bonus, the bonus value needs to be amortized across the 5 items.

Military Value = [Total attributes]*4 + Armor
Contest Value = [Total attributes]*4 + Armor + AMR(if any) + (DMG/EVD/Crit)/3*4
Bonus Value = [Total bonus attributes]/5*4

So if you are equipping a complete regular blue set, the military value will be military value + bonus value. However, HP bonus affects contest much more linearly than in military. So the contest value will be contest value + bonus value + HP value. That HP value is harder to measure, since that will depend on the hero's base HP. But I'll put it at about 20%.

I'll use 20%, and give a summary of how the items stack up to each other. It also assumes complete set with set bonus.
You may want to do your own Math with the formula above, especially if you have sets of mixed colors, or using a mix of regular and arena items.

Gear	Color/Type	Level	Military Value	Arena Value
Fury	Blue	45-49	399	479
Shark	Blue/arena	45-49	278	434
Guard	Black	50	216	259
Guard	Green	50	318	381
Guard	Blue	50	460	552
Tiger	Blue/arena	50	320	500
Knight	Green	55-59	361	433
Knight	Blue	55-59	520	624
Knight	Purple	55-59	678	814
Leopard	Blue/arena	55-59	362	566
Zealot	Green	60-64	399	479
Zealot	Blue	60-64	580	696
Zealot	Purple	60-64	753	904
Lion	Blue/arena	60-64	404	632
Marsoon	Blue/arena	65-69	446	698
Lionheart	Purple	70	892	1071
Mammoth	Blue/arena	70	488	764
Brutish	Blue/arena	75	530	830

Contest Hero

This game is mostly, if not completely, about military strength. As such, most of your heroes should be focused on Military Skills. However, I believe that having ONE contest hero is a good thing, but just ONE. This is more true for those who do not donate to the game.

Here are the reasons :
#1 To complete all 5 pagoda for the rewards.
#2 To complete all 5 pagoda without using level 70s, to get gold (about 20k a week).
#3 As a side effect, that hero will do well in Arena and qualify fast for arena rewards.

Is one hero really enough for all 5 pagoda? Yes. A good contest hero can clear the first 2 pagoda without healing.
Can you really get 20k gold? Yes. You get more gold if you use lower level heroes. So a level 50 clearing all 5 pagoda can get you at least 20k gold.

What do you need to make a good contest hero?
#1 Blue (or Purple).
#2 ONE scroll slot - Confidence, level 4.
#3 Contest skills - 10 points in all contest skills, then 20 points into Power Attack. After that, you can go ahead and put points into military skills.
#4 Weapon : Level 50 Blue, nothing less.
#5 Armor : Fury or Guard set, not Shark or Tiger.

With above, a level 55 hero should be able to clear all 5 level of Pagoda, and get 20k gold every week from pagoda.

Adamas

【Union】【heretic】:hello all..how do i find an Adamas?
【Union】【bossmonquez】: prayer

Above chat prompted me to write this blog.

Adamas is the rarest stone needed to upgrade your nobility ranking.
You need one to uprade to Warrior, and one to upgrade to Sir.
You'll need two of them to upgrade to Knight, and another two for Baron.
You'll need even more for higher Nobility ranks.

It is so rare, that only 25 players have gotten past the ranking of Sir.

So how do you find an Adamas?
bossmonquez's answer is not far from the truth : prayer.
As far as I know, the only place to find an Adamas is from a Jewelry Chest.
And the odds of finding an Adamas in a Jewelry Chest is not high.
I have found only 2 so far, after opening more than 25 Jewelry Chests.

This may lead to another question : How do you find a Jewelry Chests?

1. You can buy them in the shop for 80 diamonds (not tickets).
2. You get one for every 20 rounds of Devil Sweep (which happens every Thursday).
3. You can find them from Superior Treasure Map.

Good luck, and my prayers are with you each time you open the chest.